Robert M. Rose Papers, 1809-1947 | Special Collections and University Archives

Although Series I does not contain correspondence written by Robert Rose, there are multiple letters from his wife Mary and from several naval and business acquaintances. Those letters authored by Mary provide an insight into the Rose family, containing personal reminiscences as well as daily accounts of household and local affairs. There are, in addition, frequent references to the families and ship assignments of other naval officers. For example, Mary in her letter dated April 12, 1823 (Folder 1), recounts a rather grisly newspaper story concerning the pirating of a ship and the death of its captain at Campeachy. These and similar examples from Norfolk and naval life ca. 1820-1830 may prove of interest to the social historian.

Series II contains the correspondence and business papers of Commander Rose's son, Dr. Robert W. Rose. Although there are letters from family members and friends,, here as in the first series, there is no correspondence actually written by Dr. Rose. What could be considered as an exception to this is a copy of a legal document written on behalf of Dr. Rose and addressed to the 1893 Provisional Congress of the Confederate States (Folder 32). The document concerns the loss of six runaway slaves for whom Dr. Rose seeks financial redress from the Provisional Congress. From the remaining correspondence and papers, especially those in Folders 33 and 34, numerous genealogical references to the Rose family can be found.

Series III and IV include the papers of Dr. Robert B. Tunstall and his son Mr. Charles M. Tunstall respectively. Both of these series may be of little interest to the researcher because of their limited scope. Dr. Tunstall's papers concern the financial settlement of his estate while those of Charles Tunstall and his wife contain memorabilia such as World War II ration tickets. The importance of these two series to the collection lies in the information they provide relative to the connection between the Rose and Tunstall families and in establishing the provenance of the papers.

Born in the last quarter of the eighteenth century, Robert M. Rose was the son of a Norfolk, Virginia family. Apparently there was something of the sea tradition in the Rose family. There was an uncle, Alexander F. Rose who captained his own ship and under whom, Robert's brother Alexander began his career in 1830. Much earlier than this, Robert Rose enlisted in the U.S. Navy as midshipman on board the USS Independence in 1809. While serving on the Independence, Rose attained the rank of lieutenant and continued in this capacity in subsequent assignments on the USS Columbus and the USS Terrier.

By 1815 Rose had married his wife Mary, a woman also from the Norfolk area. As a naval officer, Rose of course was away from his family for many months out of the year. Indeed his son Robert W. Rose was born in the summer of 1823 while he was stationed in Key West with the Terrier. The anxiety caused by these extended periods of separation runs throughout Mary's letters. Aside from maintaining several rental properties belonging to the family, Mary attended to the duties of her own household. Periodic outbreaks in the community of diseases such as yellow fever were always a source of concern for a mother with a young child. There is also some evidence that Robert financially supported his brother Alexander while he was in school. This went contrary to Mary's way of thinking. She felt that Alexander was given too much to study and too little honest work.

Sometime in 1830, Mary and their son Robert began living in Portsmouth near Fort Nelson with the family of Lieutenant Joseph Smoot. In April of that same year, Rose had been promoted to Commander. References in Mary's letters dated immediately after this time indicate that Rose had visited with his family prior to taking command of the USS Erie. Within three months of his new command, Rose contracted yellow fever and died at a West India Station on August 27, 1830. The last letter in the collection from Mary was written the day before her husband's death and is especially poignant as it contains the welcome news of their son's recovery from the same malady.

The Papers of Robert M. Rose is a collection of family papers including the business records and personal correspondence of four Norfolk families in the Rose-Tunstall lineage. The papers are arranged according to family into four series; however, the focal point of the collection is the papers of Commander Robert M. Rose.

The papers in the collection are original holographs with the exceptions of folders in Series I: Sub series C. Folders 24 and 25 are photocopies from the National Archives of materials relating to Commander Rose and his wife in the U.S. Naval Records of Officers. Folder 26 contains a carbon typescript of documents held at the U.S. Naval Academy Museum.